October 18, 2006
Contact: Tina Pugel, Director of Communications, 859.858.2277
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DR. GREENWAY RESIGNS AS PRESIDENT
Dr. Jeff Greenway has resigned as president of Asbury Theological Seminary, effective October 17, 2006. President Greenway began his presidency in July 2004 after having served as a pastor and District Superintendent of the Pittsburgh East District of the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church since 1999. He earned a doctorate in ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary. He received his master of divinity from Asbury Seminary in 1985 and has served on the Board of Asbury for a number of years.
"We express appreciation for Dr. Greenway’s leadership. We are praying for Dr. Greenway and his family as he begins a new season of ministry," states Dr. Jim Smith, chairman of the board.
The Board has announced Dr. J. Ellsworth Kalas, former dean of the Beeson International Center, currently serving as professor of preaching, as the acting president effective October 18, 2006. After a long and distinguished ministry as a pastor Dr. Kalas joined the faculty at Asbury Seminary in 1993. In the announcement Dr. Jim Smith states, "Dr. Kalas is a well respected member of the community, and is widely known as one of the outstanding preachers and spiritual leaders in the church. We believe he will be an effective interim leader and president for the Asbury community. We are grateful for his willingness to accept this responsibility."
"We also want to express the board’s appreciation to our senior leadership team for their guidance and direction during this time," states Dr. Smith.
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Memo
To: Asbury Seminary faculty, staff and students
From: The President’s Leadership Steering Team (PLST), Leslie Andrews, Bill Arnold, Larry Brooks, Pete Cates, Steve Harper, Hugo Magallanes, JD Walt
Date: October 17, 2006
Subject: Message from the PLST
As members of the PLST—the administrative leadership team of Asbury Theological Seminary—we, like you, have received notification of the resignation of Dr. Jeff Greenway and the appointment of Dr. Ellsworth Kalas as acting president. Each one of us pledges that we will support Dr. Kalas and take immediate steps to ensure that the consistent operations of the seminary continues during the transition in leadership.
The first step in establishing a successful transition will be to work in consultative relationships with all deans, directors and department heads to assess the implications of this development for each area of the seminary and develop plans accordingly. We will need everyone’s help in identifying matters that need attention in order to ensure the effective operations of the seminary.
Now that this decision has been made, we encourage everyone to reflect and consider how we can all be a part of the healing process that must now take place (James 3:17-18).
The members of the PLST are committed to the unity of the institution. We invite everyone to join us in our commitment to Asbury Theological Seminary.
...and that's that.
This truly a sad day for ATS. And what will make it sadder is if we hear silence from the BOT. I told Jim Smith when this all started that the best policy was to tell all.
Who is going to want to be our next preseident?
This sad, sad mess is going to leave a stain which will smell for years.
Let's all get on our knees, confess our sin, and seek forgiveness from and for our fellows before God.
God help us! Your church has been severely injured.
If Jim Smith & Dan Johnson don't care what a number of tenured faculty have to say, why would they care what any of us have to say? You will hear nothing but silence from the BOT - except for calls to prayer. Jim Smith said it best in early September when he addressed the students and said that the board was accountable to no one. That comment told us all this was a done deal. How sad.
An attorney's opinion...Don't expect too much information on this one. The Trustees will release some, but not all the information, at an appropriate time, as this is a personnel matter, which many people, for some reason, just don't understand. By this time, the attorneys from both sides have negotiated what information will be released and what information will remain confidential. Releasing too much information can have serious legal consequences for Greenway and the Trustees. And be careful not to place all the blame on the Trustees or the Board. In cases such as this, it is typical for someone in Greenway's position to start the negotiating by requesting that terms of the seperation agreement not be released. The Trustees probably countered by withholding the reasons for dismissal. So, most of the things you read (and have read) will be (and were) speculation.
c.b. has spoken a wise word. I suspect the board's vote was a very strong majority as well, at least 2/3 if not 3/4. I'm still waiting to hear more, but I suspect this as not a close call. Unconfirmed accounts of the investigative committee's work claim a 4-0 vote to recommend termination.
Can we please move on now that Greenway has exited stage left? A year from now, very few will attribute much importance to this episode.
Bottom line: Greenway's "presidential halo" was not on straight. Greenway messed up big time and he was held accountable.
Lastly, if the BOT did disclose the reasons Greenway is gone, the people (i.e. students and alumni) who fought so hard to save him would be disappointed with their hero.
Don't assume that Greenway resigned because he was going to be terminated. For all we know, the board voted to retain him, but he chose not to stay, given that he'd have to work with the same people, esp. the executive committee, who clearly don't support him. Would you stay in such circumstances?
I can live with mistakes and imperfections in a person (even the president of ATS). I think my feelings of disappointment stem from the seeming lack of accountability regarding the system and processes that were supposedly not followed (as documented by the "We wonder" series.) Those are the issues that, I'm afraid, will have long-term consequences if they are not revisited.
Greenway needed to go. He should not have been hired in the first place. Now the seminary can move forward with a visionary leader.
...and as Kyle's comments go one more reason United Methodist students should now go to a UM seminary. I think we should all pray for the students after all they are why the seminary is there.
Go where your sent.
kyle.... How dare you imply that Jeff Greenway is not a visionary leader. Do you know of Greenway's plans for an "Asbury University"? Did you know that this university would merge Asbury College with Asbury Theological Seminary? Did you know that the college's board attempted to make this happen but when they tried to contact Jim Smith that he refused to discuss the idea? But I'm guessing that an "Asbury University" is not a visionary-leader-like idea....
Wow, great example of Christian love folks...
I am highly impressed by the level of compassion and thoughtfulness directed at those effected most by this whole mess.
Great witness there.
It saddens me greatly that a comment such as that made by "Kyle" could be made by someone after the heart of Christ. I seldom if ever enter thr rebuking line of business, but that was over the top, under the belt and completely uncalled for. See James chapter 3 for further.
Great people talk of ideas and concepts
Avereage people discuss places and things
Lowly poeple talk of others.
Anonymous,
I hate to break the news to you, but the idea of Asbury University has been around for at least thirty years, probably more. I'm sure Dr. Greenway deserves credit for various ideas, this is not one of them.
A Beeson grad told me earlier this year that Greenway stopped plans for a Beeson trip to Wayne Cordeiro's church in Hawaii. The grad heard that the reason was that the church was not Methodist. Could a rift with the Beeson program have played a part in his demise?
I am disgusted and saddened by what has happened at ATS and let me say as someone with personal experience of Dr Kalas' leadership if they thought Greenway was autocratic they ain't seen nothing yet, I have never met a man in Christian leadership with such a caustic tongue and ungenerous spirit. God help Asbury and I mean that as a prayer. I can't help but think that Kalas was involved in this stitch from the start.
I don't know Dr. Kalas, but this description of him vastly contradicts everything I have heard elsewhere. When his name is mentioned, everyone seems to start cooing (he's in his 80's). I've been amazed at how so many people seem to idealize him. I have pictured someone who will not be controversial but will likely soothe the community. Time will tell!
Thanks, James, that's good to hear.
A few odd notes. The "Asbury University" idea is old news. When I was a student in the 1970's that idea was going around.
But the College takes a dim view of the seminary's imperialistic aspirations and already has graduate programs of its own. A seminary has too narrow an intellectual vision (i.e. reality=church) to be the driving force in a university. Merging the two schools has never been thought a wise idea for many reasons, but periodicaly a seminary president (not usually a College president) thinks it should happen,.
I have known Ellsworth Kalas closely since he came to ATS. He has conviction and will be a decisive leader, but the claim that he is autocratic is unfounded. We normally refer to people as "autocratic" when they made a decision we disagreed with and carried on despite our disapproval. Dr. Kalas is a man of good character, a find mind, a sound sense of who ATS is, and he has the trust of every segment of the ATS community.
My only regret as that he can't give us 20 years to life.
Lawson,
By the definition of "autocrat" that you supplied in your above post, it seems to follow that we can attach the term "autocratic" to the Board of Trustees for the following reason: they made a decision (begun by actions against stated by-law policies; article VII section B), that the vast majority of faculty, students, alumni and friends of the seminary disagreed with, and carried on despite the overwhelming disapproval and have (so far) refused to explain or defend.
I hope that we are all praying that Kalas will help bring healing to Asbury Seminary until the new President is named.
Whoah, I missed all this drama!!!
Who knows, maybe God will extend Dr. Kalas' years, and he'll live as long as Noah. He might not look so hot, but he'll still be crankin'.
First, Kalas is a wonderful man and full of much wisdom, not just knowledge. I have had the privilege of taking a preaching class with him. I have had the privilege of having friends work for him. Yes "privilege" is the word I choose for a reason.
To attack Kalas's reputation is simply one of the silliest ideas I have ever heard of. If there is one person closest to above reproach at ATS it is Kalas.
A quote keeps coming to my mind as I hear more and more about this mess:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
If I were a professor at the seminary I would worry that the board could remove me (even if I had tenure). The board could come up with some new way to look at what I am doing, some way to critique my methodology, my theological beliefs, or even my personal character, that I had not previously been held accountable to or even had knowledge about. Would this be fair? Sure in regards to the law not knowing the law is no excuse for breaking it. However, where is the law here? Does the board have a set of governing principles that it must follow? Did they follow them?
Here is my prayer: God of all creation, who knows the innermost workings of people's hearts, bless those who were following your will, and bring down those who have not followed your will both professionally and personally to a level that they will once again have to rely on You and not on their own understanding and power. In Jesus loving name, Amen.
Now, if I were more Christ like I may compare someone to a brood of vipers or cups that were clean outside, yet dirty on the inside. If I was really feeling like Jesus I may call someone a son of Satan. But it is not for me to judge (as much as I would love to do that sometimes), that is God's place.
In one of these posts, someone said that they would love to see revival come again. Revival can only happen when people are truly repentant. Is that happening here?
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